Basic Ingredients

Baking Soda

Any brand of baking soda works just fine. Buy whatever is cheapest, and buy the biggest box you can find. I buy 5 pound boxes at the supermarket. This product is your staple for so many purposes.

White Distilled Vinegar

Buy a gallon jug. Some folks feel the Heinz brand doesn't have as strong a smell as others, but I find that if I'm scenting it with essential oils it doesn't matter anyway. And the odor dissipates as soon as it dries. You can now find cleaning strength vinegar, which is slightly stronger. Any kind works just fine, however.

Liquid Soaps

Castile soap, a vegetable-based soap, can be found in Target, in some supermarkets, and in health food stores. I strongly recommend Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Scented Castile Soap. It smells wonderful! Dr. Bronner's also has other fragrances as well. Their product is excellent, although a little pricey, but it goes a long way. Glycerin can be found in drugstores, sometimes supermarkets, and health food stores. Very useful for stain removal.

Hand Dishwashing Detergent

Not totally non-toxic, but useful in small amounts in some recipes. I recommend Dawn. This can substitute for Castile Soap in a pinch, but just use a little less than is called for in the recipe.

Borax

Borax is sold in the laundry section of your supermarket. It is slightly toxic, but is used in only very small amounts, and is considered by many authorities to have some antiseptic properties. Besides its use in some of the recipes, it is also very effective as a laundry booster--just add 1/2 cup or so along with your soap or detergent.

Washing Soda

This is different than baking soda. It can be found in the laundry aisle, although not all markets carry it. I have also ordered it from Amazon. This is also useful as a laundry booster, as well as being a key ingredient in the homemade laundry soap recipe. It is more toxic than most ingredients I recommend, but is all-natural and safe for the environment.

Fels Naptha Soap

This bar soap can be found in the laundry section. Fels Naptha is used as a laundry stain pre-treater, and is used in a very nice liquid laundry soap recipe that I will include on the Recipes page.

Club Soda

Club soda can be found in the aisle with the soft drinks. Just buy the cheapest brand. It's effective whether the fizz is there or not, so if you have some flat club soda on hand, use it for cleaning purposes! Seltzers and other fizzy waters do not work the same. It must be club soda.

Essential Oils

Try lemon, eucalyptus, peppermint, or your favorites. Tea Tree oil has antiseptic properties. Essential oils can be expensive, but they last a long time, as you only use a little in each recipe. Find the best quality in health food stores. Be careful with essential oils--they are concentrated and can dissolve plastics when spilled.

Containers

Several clean, empty spray, squirt, and shake bottles will be needed for your products. The 16 oz. and 22 oz. sizes seem to be the most useful. I particularly like empty dish detergent bottles, squirt ketchup bottles, empty grated cheese containers (you know, the ones with the shaker lids). For spray bottles, I buy good quality ones in the garden center of a big box store, because I want the sprayer to last and to work well.